Can anybody catch the Knicks in the Atlantic?

[NJ_YANKEE_45]

I found it funny how pretty nobody thought the Knicks had a chance of winning the division because they focused on their average age, which is a result of ROLE players. The Celtics are dinosaurs, the Sixers have missed their potential franchise player who has the body of a 40 year old. The Nets are underachievers and their star point guard has been terrible. The Raptors just suck

[PetroNet]

nets are 5-5 in the last 10 games. There is no evidence that this was a wise decision. If anything it put their "star" player on the national stage in a negative light

LOL @ you using the last 10 games. why would you chose a 10 game sample when PJ has been the coach for 4 games? why not just use the sample of since PJ took over?

how about this... the nets in the last 10 games:

under PJ: 4 wins, 1 loss including a blowout win @OKC

under avery: 1 Win, 4 losses

id say it was a FANTASTIC decision to fire avery. the team has responded extremely well, PJ has made all the changes fans and media have been begging for, and our 3 top players are all playing lights out under PJ.

[Bertrob]

I can see the Celtics making a run like last year and winning the Atlantic late

[PetroNet]

I didn't mean the Nets are a circus in the media as much as they are a circus on the basketball floor.

Can you elaborate?

I did already. The parts don't fit. Joe Johnson is useless without the ball in his hands. He doesn't do very much cutting off the ball and will just stand around waiting for something to happen.

have you watched many nets games? half his points are coming on catch and shoot situations

Your best scorer is probably Brook Lopez, but he isn't dominant enough to demand a double team, so teams just take their chances and single up on him.

not dominant? he is 4th in the NBA in PER behind only lebron, durant, and carmello. he is also constantly double teamed.

[Trader_Joe]

I can see the Celtics making a run like last year and winning the Atlantic late

Unless Bradley is the real MVP of that team, I can't see that happening this year.
Year older seems to make a big difference for PP and KG. Did KG have these minute restrictions last year?

[Bertrob]

I can see the Celtics making a run like last year and winning the Atlantic late

Unless Bradley is the real MVP of that team, I can't see that happening this year.
Year older seems to make a big difference for PP and KG. Did KG have these minute restrictions last year?

Yea the restrictions started last year.
7 games back seems kind of daunting but theres still plenty of time.

[PetroNet]

I can see the Celtics making a run like last year and winning the Atlantic late

Unless Bradley is the real MVP of that team, I can't see that happening this year.
Year older seems to make a big difference for PP and KG. Did KG have these minute restrictions last year?

Agreed, in fact, unless danny adds a rebounding big who can defend, i wouldnt be suprised to see them battling just to hang on to a 7 or 8 seed

[MassAttack]

It's far from over, it's the first week in january lets get real fellas. But I know knicks fans want to get excited from finally being out the cellar it's understandable they're having a great year so far.

[vincecarter4pres]

I didn't mean the Nets are a circus in the media as much as they are a circus on the basketball floor.

Can you elaborate?

I did already. The parts don't fit. Joe Johnson is useless without the ball in his hands. He doesn't do very much cutting off the ball and will just stand around waiting for something to happen. Your best scorer is probably Brook Lopez, but he isn't dominant enough to demand a double team, so teams just take their chances and single up on him. Then you have Deron who is half of what he was AND in a bad system for his particular skill set.

That's why I said circus. It was probably poor word choice on my part. Disjointed is a much more apt term.

El oh El

[TheProfessor]

Well, BOS is old and is in pretty sad shape...changes need to be made, when KG is on the floor they are almost at a contender level but when he's off the floor they play like a lottery team. Unfortunately, this isn't 2008 and KG can't plays 40minutes a game...Boston is a playoff team that wont make the playoffs.


Nets are a bag of skittles, just dont seem to work and most teams have a good stretch after they fire there coach. The thing to see if this a just a trend or if this the level they'll be playing at. However the nets are a bad defensive team, they are reminiscent of Lakers in the fact they're uber talented and have a good offence on the will of sheer talent that doesn't seem to fit but still produces due in part to great scorers (Brook and KoMe, not saying they are remotely the same player but produce in similar roles). Unfortunately, BK also plays defence or like LA...no explanation needed. And if they the nets were in the west I can imagine them being at near the Lakers level or below them.

Phi doesn't have enough healthy or developed talent, turner needs to develop more and Bynum needs to play a few games for them to be in discussion.

Toronto....Raps in 4?

NYK are the cream of the crop in the Atlantic, the Knicks are playing at a level of basketball far beyond their competition in the atlantic. They are playing like the 2011 Mavs 1 dominant scorer (melo, Dirk), 1 defensive anchor (Chandler, Chandler) and a whole host of 3 point shooters and spacers as they have each have a microwave too (JR and Terry). NYK as much as I hate to say it is just better than any team in the atlantic

[DHK]

Boston will make their usual 2nd half surge
Nets are talented; if they come together they can be a good team and thats a big IF
Philly? No.

But the biggest factor.
Raps in 4.

[Trader_Joe]

Well, BOS is old and is in pretty sad shape...changes need to be made, when KG is on the floor they are almost at a contender level but when he's off the floor they play like a lottery team. Unfortunately, this isn't 2008 and KG can't plays 40minutes a game...Boston is a playoff team that wont make the playoffs.


Nets are a bag of skittles, just dont seem to work and most teams have a good stretch after they fire there coach. The thing to see if this a just a trend or if this the level they'll be playing at. However the nets are a bad defensive team, they are reminiscent of Lakers in the fact they're uber talented and have a good offence on the will of sheer talent that doesn't seem to fit but still produces due in part to great scorers (Brook and KoMe, not saying they are remotely the same player but produce in similar roles). Unfortunately, BK also plays defence or like LA...no explanation needed. And if they the nets were in the west I can imagine them being at near the Lakers level or below them.

Phi doesn't have enough healthy or developed talent, turner needs to develop more and Bynum needs to play a few games for them to be in discussion.

Toronto....Raps in 4?

NYK are the cream of the crop in the Atlantic, the Knicks are playing at a level of basketball far beyond their competition in the atlantic. They are playing like the 2011 Mavs 1 dominant scorer (melo, Dirk), 1 defensive anchor (Chandler, Chandler) and a whole host of 3 point shooters and spacers as they have each have a microwave too (JR and Terry). NYK as much as I hate to say it is just better than any team in the atlantic

Nets were top 10 in defense 14 games into the season before Lopez went down. Not sure they get back there, but I'd call them average defensively if not slightly above average.

The also match up well with NY. They led the majority of their 1st two match ups (that they split) and were outplayed and out coached in game 3 under Avery. TBH, after the trade deadline when I expect them to upgrade at PF (and I don't expect NY to make any moves as they don't have any assets or any pieces they would move), I would take the Nets in a 7 game series or at least expect the series to go 6 or 7 games. However, I do not expect them to catch up to the Knicks in the standings.. I just hope they meet in the playoffs.

[Tron Carter]

Nets were top 10 in defense 14 games into the season before Lopez went down. Not sure they get back there, but I'd call them average defensively if not slightly above average.

The also match up well with NY. They led the majority of their 1st two match ups (that they split) and were outplayed and out coached in game 3 under Avery. TBH, after the trade deadline when I expect them to upgrade at PF (and I don't expect NY to make any moves as they don't have any assets or any pieces they would move), I would take the Nets in a 7 game series or at least expect the series to go 6 or 7 games. However, I do not expect them to catch up to the Knicks in the standings.. I just hope they meet in the playoffs.

Bold prediction.

I'm not really gonna get into match ups when I don't believe the Knicks have reached their ceiling in regards to how good a team they can be once healthy.

I also wouldn't see a Nets-Knicks series go beyond 5 games with a Knicks homecourt advantage. I could even see the Nyets playoff home game crowd swaying in the Knicks favor.

[TheProfessor]

Well, BOS is old and is in pretty sad shape...changes need to be made, when KG is on the floor they are almost at a contender level but when he's off the floor they play like a lottery team. Unfortunately, this isn't 2008 and KG can't plays 40minutes a game...Boston is a playoff team that wont make the playoffs.


Nets are a bag of skittles, just dont seem to work and most teams have a good stretch after they fire there coach. The thing to see if this a just a trend or if this the level they'll be playing at. However the nets are a bad defensive team, they are reminiscent of Lakers in the fact they're uber talented and have a good offence on the will of sheer talent that doesn't seem to fit but still produces due in part to great scorers (Brook and KoMe, not saying they are remotely the same player but produce in similar roles). Unfortunately, BK also plays defence or like LA...no explanation needed. And if they the nets were in the west I can imagine them being at near the Lakers level or below them.

Phi doesn't have enough healthy or developed talent, turner needs to develop more and Bynum needs to play a few games for them to be in discussion.

Toronto....Raps in 4?

NYK are the cream of the crop in the Atlantic, the Knicks are playing at a level of basketball far beyond their competition in the atlantic. They are playing like the 2011 Mavs 1 dominant scorer (melo, Dirk), 1 defensive anchor (Chandler, Chandler) and a whole host of 3 point shooters and spacers as they have each have a microwave too (JR and Terry). NYK as much as I hate to say it is just better than any team in the atlantic

Nets were top 10 in defense 14 games into the season before Lopez went down. Not sure they get back there, but I'd call them average defensively if not slightly above average.

The also match up well with NY. They led the majority of their 1st two match ups (that they split) and were outplayed and out coached in game 3 under Avery. TBH, after the trade deadline when I expect them to upgrade at PF (and I don't expect NY to make any moves as they don't have any assets or any pieces they would move), I would take the Nets in a 7 game series or at least expect the series to go 6 or 7 games. However, I do not expect them to catch up to the Knicks in the standings.. I just hope they meet in the playoffs.

Totally agree, the playoffs are all about match-ups and home court, well home-court is well kind of dimished and Nets match up fairly well. Couple that the knicks inability to get to the second round over the course of the last 10 years(1 game won), it's not that hard to see a tough well fought series but yeah no not a snow flakes chance in hell the nets catch the knicks for first in the atlantic.

[vincecarter4pres]

I think the Knicks will win the Atlantic, but I can't wait to see the squirm in mid to late February til the end of the season when the Nets are only about a game or 2 back and it's a nightly standings battle.

[Tron Carter]

Totally agree, the playoffs are all about match-ups and home court, well home-court is well kind of dimished and Nets match up fairly well. Couple that the knicks inability to get to the second round over the course of the last 10 years(1 game won), it's not that hard to see a tough well fought series but yeah no not a snow flakes chance in hell the nets catch the knicks for first in the atlantic.

Is this still being recognized as a legitimate argument? Does this also mean the Nyets will miss playoffs all together?

[Trader_Joe]

Nets were top 10 in defense 14 games into the season before Lopez went down. Not sure they get back there, but I'd call them average defensively if not slightly above average.

The also match up well with NY. They led the majority of their 1st two match ups (that they split) and were outplayed and out coached in game 3 under Avery. TBH, after the trade deadline when I expect them to upgrade at PF (and I don't expect NY to make any moves as they don't have any assets or any pieces they would move), I would take the Nets in a 7 game series or at least expect the series to go 6 or 7 games. However, I do not expect them to catch up to the Knicks in the standings.. I just hope they meet in the playoffs.

Bold prediction.

I'm not really gonna get into match ups when I don't believe the Knicks have reached their ceiling in regards to how good a team they can be once healthy.

I also wouldn't see a Nets-Knicks series go beyond 5 games with a Knicks homecourt advantage. I could even see the Nyets playoff home game crowd swaying in the Knicks favor.

Not really.

The Nets do match up well the Knicks and clearly you must know that if you watched the games this season.

Other than the third game where the Nets were out played and out coached (and coming off another back to back as they have the most in the NBA), the Nets led the Knicks the majority of games 1 and 2 and if it weren't for a non-called offensive foul on Kidd that Knicks homer JVG pointed out on the air and NBA admitted the Refs missed, the Nets could be up 2-1 on the season.

And yes.. Knicks have always had a home court advantage over the Nets, but it didn't stop the Nets from sweeping them last time they met. In fact I don't get that argument.. the 1st win you guys kept saying.. "ha you barely won at home against us".. yet then it turned into "ha..we have homecourt in your own building".

Anyway like I said, I really hope they meet in the playoffs as I would love to bet on the outcome.

[Trader_Joe]

Totally agree, the playoffs are all about match-ups and home court, well home-court is well kind of dimished and Nets match up fairly well. Couple that the knicks inability to get to the second round over the course of the last 10 years(1 game won), it's not that hard to see a tough well fought series but yeah no not a snow flakes chance in hell the nets catch the knicks for first in the atlantic.

Is this still being recognized as a legitimate argument? Does this also mean the Nyets will miss playoffs all together?

No because we are a brand new team and have nothing to go by.

You guys have the core of your team from the last two seasons which is 1-8 in the playoffs.

In fact you guys have Melo who I think has the lowest winning percentage in the playoffs of all time.. or right up there with McGrady as inefficient volume scorers tend not to do well in the playoffs... as those two have evidenced.

In fact, not knowing the match-ups, I would make an avy or sig bet that the Knicks don't make the ECF.
Any takers?

[TheProfessor]

Totally agree, the playoffs are all about match-ups and home court, well home-court is well kind of dimished and Nets match up fairly well. Couple that the knicks inability to get to the second round over the course of the last 10 years(1 game won), it's not that hard to see a tough well fought series but yeah no not a snow flakes chance in hell the nets catch the knicks for first in the atlantic.

Is this still being recognized as a legitimate argument? Does this also mean the Nyets will miss playoffs all together?

Trends are a part of sports, just look at the knicks record against Houston regardless of how the knicks are playing the line will always reflect that the knicks suck against the rockets historically. All things must be considered.

[bigbreakfast]

With 50 games left, it's possible, but unlikely. Although the Knicks have regressed to the mean from their insanely hot start and it remains to be seen how Amare will mesh with this team, I think they'll win the division. I think the better question to ask is if they can make a deep run in the playoffs.